Audio and Video

XLR connectors

The XLR connector is an electrical connector design used mostly in professional audio and video electronics cabling applications, for microphones and line level signals. The most common is the three-pin XLR3, used almost universally as a balanced audio connector for high quality microphones and connections between equipment. XLR connectors are superior to many other audio

Audio equipment tweaking

Some people love tweaking their equipment. Quite often some tweaking does not really change anything you hear, and sometimes there might be noticeable change, but not always for the better. Most of the time, second-guessing a piece of equipment’s designer component choices results worse than original performance. There are cases where tweaking can have difference,

Star-Quad Cables

Star-quad design is sometimes quite a bit of talked about cable type. When I saw Star-Quad Cables and Double-Blind Testing posting at Controlgeek blog I decided that it would be a good idea to write something about them. Several companies use a quad configuration in their balanced cables instead of a twisted pair; Canare calls

Audio myths dispelled

It’s pretty amazing what can be sold in the pursuit of better sound. As it turns out, most of these subtle yet pricey upgrades/enhancements are nothing more than placebo. Audio myths dispelled video is a part of a panel discussion / workshop held at the 2009 AES show in NYC. Ethan Winer posted this in-depth

Why Bad 3D Gives You Headaches

Why bad 3D, not 3D glasses, is what gives you a headache article tells that it’s not the 3D technology’s fault, it’s really the baddly made 3D content that can cause the headaches some people get at 3D movies. There are several common mistakes that can cause discomfort, and easy ways for that to be

Audio isolation transformers

Allen Avionics Audio Isolation Transformers page describes the typical ground loop problem situation with the following drawing: If you want to do the ground loop elimination in audio path, you have to cut the galvanic connection but pass the whole audio range. The simplest and most common way to do the isolation is use audio

Cool thing from Assembly Summer 2010

I visited Assembly Summer 2010 computer festival this weekend. There were many interesting multimedia presentations shown there and some interesting seminars. Check the competition results and view the winners easily on Assembly Summer 2010 gallery and more on YouTube. Check also Future Crew documentary. In the seminars Andreas Jakl from Nokia presented material on programming

HDMI cable naming confusion

HDMI cabling is already an area in which confusion drives people to spend more than they need to. In many ways HDMI has revolutionized the way we connect devices. By unifying video and audio into a single cable manufacturers have been able to make their products easier to setup than ever before. But HDMI was

3D is dangerous?

WARNING: 3D Video Hazardous to Your Health headline is a bit sensational. But it is not the only one this kind of headline. The 3D Video Hazardous to Your Health article tells that prolonged viewing of 3D video may be even more harmful than the consumer electronics industry wants you to know. Especially for children.